COLUMBIA, S.C. A federal court here Friday agreed to dismiss a discrimination suit brought against Founders FCU by a former assistant vice president in charge of Hispanic outreach who was fired over conflicts with the credit union’s loan policies.
In granting the credit union’s motion for summary judgment, the court ruled there was little evidence that Salvador Estrada was fired in June 2010 because of ethnic or racial discrimination. The judge’s findings, which were subsequently reinforced by a magistrate, were that Estrada was fired because he approved a loan to a business partner, which the credit union’s policies bar.
The Hispanic outreach officer alleged that he was subjected to race and national origin discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The suit was originally filed in state court, but removed to federal court, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, because of the federal statute at issue.
Estrada was hired by the Lancaster, S.C., credit union in 2002 to help introduce Founder’s products to the state’s growing Hispanic community. He is bilingual and bi-cultural and his skills were useful both in attracting the Hispanic market and aiding the credit union in making information available in Spanish in its automated systems and websites. He became a speaker at various credit union conferences on Hispanic outreach across the country. Eventually he was transferred to Founder’s branch in Charlotte, N.C., where, he alleges in his suit, he came under close scrutiny for loans he had approved for investments outside of his market area.
In 2010, a member business loan borrower contacted the credit union about a business venture Estrada had entered with him in 2008 with Founder’s loans and said Estrada was refusing to repay him. The MBL borrower showed proof that Estrada had the borrower take out the loans for the benefit of a business Estrada and his wife owned. The credit union eventually fired Estrada for the violation of its loan policies.
In his suit, Estrada says he had terminated his relationship with the borrower by the time of the confrontation with his supervisor. He also says that other white employees were treated differently for such discretions.
The Magistrate determined that each of Estrada’s supervisors construed the policy prohibiting the approval of loans to those with whom a loan officer had a close professional relationship to apply regardless of whether the relationship were on-going or ended. “In the court's view, no reasonable jury could find that Defendant's proffered reason for discharging Plaintiff was false,” wrote the Magistrate. “Further, the court agrees with the Magistrate Judge that Plaintiff has not provided any evidence that (the supervisor) was biased against Plaintiff because of his race or national origin.”
